Category Archives: Next Level

Today is #BCBS day, where six versions of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout are being released in Chicago. Us Torontonians get one version at twice the price (#Toronto).

I didn’t understand the buzz around BCBS, having tried it once last year and not loved it. Then I went to Chicago a couple weeks ago, tried five different versions (Prop, double bourbon barrel, coffee + two different barrel blends) at FOBAB (as well as many more bourbon barrel aged stouts), and I get it. Bourbon County is truly the world’s best bourbon barrel aged stout. It is perfectly smooth for being so strong. It is dry for being so desserty. It is fucking delicious. It is worth lining up overnight for.

My favourite variant is this year’s Proprietor’s blend, which tastes like a chocolate macaroon. A chocolate macaroon in 14% alcohol form that I could sip all day. It has banana, almonds and cassia bark. It is one of the best beers I have ever had in my life. But I’ll have to drink it a second time to be sure. 😉

I haven’t written since April and since then EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED FOR CRAFT BEER IN ONTARIO. It was a slow climb, and then very very fast and now the sky’s the limit I guess. There is so much happening that it’s hard to keep track of it all. The Ontario Craft Beer Guide writers have to update their book every half year or so to properly document this crazy influx of everybody and their mother opening a brewery. Continue reading →

Here I am drinking my favourite beer (gueuze/lambic) aged in my favourite wine (vin jaune) barrels, at one of my favourite breweries in Belgium. This is happiness. Read about what makes this beer so special, and prey to the beer gods you get to try it one day. It is beautiful. It is my favourite beer of all time.

This past weekend, I attended my third Cask Days, the all-cask (*ahem*, mostly-cask) beer festival the Morana family started 11 years ago. It was awesome. Not only did I get to try some word-class brews like Four Winds Nectarous, the dry-hopped sour which won Beer of the Year at the 2016 Canadian Brewing Awards, but I got to cheers a bunch of my friends with said beer. Because we went for the first session on Friday. And had first pick of everythang. Also, Halo, that brewery I work for who won Best Newcomer at this year’s Golden Tap Awards, had two of their delicious offerings on cask: Event Horizon and Elder God. Continue reading →

Ralph Morana is credited for starting Toronto’s craft beer bar scene. He opened an Italian restaurant in 1988, made it a beer bar/restaurant in 1999, and rebranded to brewpub and craft beer destination Bar Volo in 2010. Since then, with the help of his family and sons Tomas and Julian, he has built something of a craft beer empire: they have their own importing agency, supply beer to some of Toronto’s best restaurants, and run Cask Days, the most ambitious beer festival in the country, which happens every October.

The Moranas are the reason we can get Cantillon in Toronto. I had it on tap last night, at a special preview of their new space Birreria Volo at 612 College St. A couple kegs will be making the rounds to some local beer bars soon. This is now a thing we can get used to. This is a big deal. Continue reading →

Their rosé wine beer hybrid with Pearl Morissette debuts tomorrow at 11 am. While April’s orange wine collaboration with Southbrook was simply aged in wine barrels, BUMO is 60% beer and 40% wine, and is meant to be slightly agitated (i.e. turn the bottle upside down like you would kombucha; do not shake). It contains “wild wine yeasts & bacterias from Niagara and choice Saison & Brettanomyces cultures from Escarpent Labs” and was bottle conditioned for three months.

2016 is the summer of rosé, and this drank will be hella refreshing when shared with friends and some kind of fancy charcuterie plate.

Burdock’s wine barrel aging program might be a big cause of financial distress for me in the future: I must try everything and they have at least 111 barrels to do fun things with.

I have been to New York a few times for brief stints, but made a resolution during my last trip back in 2011 that the next trip would be different. I told myself that next time, I’ll stay for a week, maybe in Brooklyn. Next time, I won’t be dirt poor, and I will be able to afford the things I want. Next time, I’ll book a flight, instead of an overnight bus.

Since 2011, I’ve also become a beer nerd. So while I did all the things, I also drank all the beers. This is because, here in Ontario, the government controls our beer consumption, and we do not have the selection of amazing American and world beers like they do in the states. Here are some highlights from my beercation: Continue reading →

Last August at Volo’s Dieu du Ciel tap takeover, Ralph Morana and Stéphane Ostiguy told me they were looking into spaces to open a brewpub here in Toronto. I was so giddy at the prospect and wanted to write about it, but Ralph asked me not to because nothing was finalized. Good thing, because they ended up going in different directions and opening up two different spaces: Ralph is opening up a small bar that will focus on my fave beer of all time, sours, in Little Italy, and Stéphane & Luc of DDC are opening up a large brewpub in the opposite end of the city. In other words, they answered my prayers and did something better and truly awesome.

It is with this announcement that I have decided my New Year’s resolutions: